"Two Spanish Picaresque Novels". ***

> "Lazarillo De Tormes" by ANON and
"The Swindler" by Francisco de Quevedo

> Double novella published in 1969, the stories were written n early 1600s in Spain

> p.7...introducton..."The picaro is usually a cynical youth, brought up the hard way and determined to treat others as cruelly as he has been treated himself. His aim is to burlar other: to deceive and play cruel tricks on them, and indeed cruelty is one of the dominant motifs of these novels, which reflect a world where the rule is every man for himself

> "Lazarillo de Tormes".....the first picaresque novel of record

> p.23..."I think it's a good thing that important events which quite accidentally have never seen the light of day, should be made public and not buried in the grave of oblivion."

> p.23..."Pliny says there is no book, however bad it may be, that doesn't have something good about it, especially as tastes vary and one man's meat is another man's poison."

> p.26..."How may people must there be in the world who run away from others in fright because they can't see themselves?"

> No man more astute or cunning that the blind man that Lazaro travels with

Intro t "The Swindler"...."Dear Reader, may God protect youo from bad books, police, and nagging, moon-faced, fair-haired women."

> p. 85..."...a reaper of cheeks and tailor of beards"...bad barber.......

> p.87..."...and my father went to scrape a customer....maybe his face and maybe his wallet."......the barber again

> p.129..."I thought about how dfficult it was for me to be honourable and virtuous, because first I would have to hide the fact that my parents were neither, then I would have to be so honourable and virtuous that nobdy would know me." ...LOL

> p.132..."Poets had been declared mad in a proclamation issued by a man who had been one before and decided to live a better life."...the proclamation is hysterically funny to read...."A Proclamation Against All Idiot, Useless and Rubbishy Poets."

> p.147..."I was riding on a grey donkey like Sancho Panza.....".....this was written during the same time period as "Don Quixote"

> p.213..."When I saw that this situation was going to be more or less ermanent and that bad luck was dogging my heels, I made u my mind, nt because I was inteligent enough to see what was going to happen but because I was tired and obstinate in my wickedness, to go to America..I thought things would go better in the New Workd and another country. But they went wrse, as they always will for anybody who thinks he only has to move his dwelling without changing his ways."

>. LibraryThing Review: The two novellas in this book are examples of the "picaresque" character which was first introduced in Spanish literature in the mid 1500s. The "picaro" is a character who survives by his wits, struggling to find each and every crust of bread, and swindling the people around him to survive. Both of these stories are tragi-comic and interesting in terms of the history of Spabish literature.